Year of The Horse!

Thirty first of January 2014 mark the beginning of a New Lunar Year for Chinese all around the world and this also mark the first year I am handling out "ang pow" to the "poor" and "needy". Here were some quick facts I found on the net regarding the horse:

1. The horse is the seventh animal in the 12-year cycle.

2. As of 2014, we are in the Wood Phase of "Wu Xing" (Five Movements/Phases/Steps/Stages, commonly known as the Five Element) so this is the year of the Wood Horse. It will take approximately 60 years for us to revisit the Year of the Wood Horse which is in year 2074 (not sure if I am still alive by then).

With that, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year.

Revoltech Sci-Fi #045 Iron Man Mark I

What would you do when you were caught by a bunch of terrorist and were forced to produce weapons for the said group? Build an armour and free yourself from your captors! That is how Tony Stark did it!

Out-of-the-box content. Nothing much to see here.

Front view of the figure. It is not pretty but looks cool nevertheless.

Front close up. The asymmetrical design of this suit is very appealing.

Side view of the figure.

This figure comes with a lot of detailing and weathering.

Back view of the figure. Is that a water bottle at the back?

Is that something like a power regulator unit?

Close up on the right arm. There was a missile concealed inside.

Hi! I am the Thin Man from Wizard of Oz.

Let us heat up the party!

I am exhausted after partying all night.

Here is another Iron Man figure from Revoltech. I was a bit reluctant to get this initially because it was one of the most ugly Iron Man suit out there. Despite that, it has some redeeming features such as the realistic design, good articulation and good amount of weathering. My only problem on the figure was Tony Stark. Yup Tony Stark! This figure was suppose to depict Tony Stark in the Mark I armour but there was no single visage that this Mark I was actually worn by him. It was as if this figure was of a robot build upon the Mark I armour. All in all, it was still a very good depiction of the Mark I armour so grab it if you want to complete your Iron Man figure collection. Makes you wonder how long we will have to keep this up.

UFO Annular Trailer + Transformers Optimus Prime

In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Optimus carried it's annular trailer into the battlefield which acted as a weapon rack when it was fully deployed.

This was the annular trailer produced by UFO.

It was an original design and definitely not a pirated product. It comes in different version. The which I have here was the silver version.

Optimus with the trailer. The trailer sits right into the peg on the prime mover. This is as close as you can get to movie accurate.

The trailer once fully deployed. That was how the name annular trailer came from. It formed a circular weapon rack.

Close up on the interior of the annular trailer.

The LED gimmicks were on the canister. It was a nice addition to this product.

The interior of the trailer/rack was rather detailed too.

Optimus sitting on it's weapon stash to ponder on what to equip. I can use some extra accessories with this rack.

This was another big third party purchase for me. It was not acceptable for Optimus Prime to move around in vehicle mode without it's trailer so I did what was right and bought this annular trailer. Boy was I excited when I received it once it was finally released!

It was huge and it compliments Optimus both in trailer mode or weapon rack mode well. The transformation was really well designed. No disassemble or part swapping needed which was really neat. The only downside regarding this product was the finishing. The blue marking above and below the trailer was a bit off on mine. That aside, the price tag for this product was a bit too steep. All in all, it was a great purchase in my opinion. This will surely made any leader class Optimus Prime whole and complete.